


Den Lille Arkaeolog

by kuonji



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Fairy Tale Elements, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-21 17:37:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7397041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuonji/pseuds/kuonji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He traded his voice to be with his prince, and they spent their days together though it was agony. (Not your typical fairy tale.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Den Lille Arkaeolog

**Author's Note:**

> Orig. Posted 2008.03.03
> 
> Alternative Links:  
> <http://kuonji14.livejournal.com/17031.html>

There once was an archaeologist. His name was Daniel Jackson.

Daniel lived in a very special place called the SGC, where scientists like himself worked and played and made amazing discoveries. Daniel spent all day surrounded by his artifacts and books and -- best of all -- by friends who shared in his achievements.

There was Robert, his oldest friend, who shared both his field and his allergies, and who listened to everything Daniel had to say. There was Nyan, his round-faced protege, who had grown into his own and never ceased to amaze Daniel with his enthusiasm and his ideas. And then there was Samantha, the beautiful astrophysicist who understood very little of Daniel's work but understood him better than anyone.

Daniel was very happy there.

But Daniel had a secret.

It was a forbidden secret, one that he couldn't share even with his friends who were like siblings to him. No, Daniel couldn't tell them his secret, because they would never betray Daniel by telling his secret to Those In Charge as they ought to do. Daniel knew that if they knew and did not tell, then they would also be Punished, as Daniel himself was sure to be once someone found out.

His secret lived in another part of the SGC, somewhere beyond the Wall. It was only infrequently, using the system that Samantha had clandestinely set up to tap into the cameras Outside, that Daniel dared spy on his secret. Tall and lanky, with short gray hair and piercing yet sweet coffee-brown eyes, he exuded a sense of timeless strength. He had the look of a fallen hero. A lost prince.

His secret's name was Jack O'Neill, and he captivated every ounce of Daniel's being.

Certainly, there were signs that he was one of the dangerous Outsiders -- one of the angry men that Daniel and his friends had to be kept safe from. Yet all Daniel knew was that he desperately wanted to be with him. But any contact between the scientists and those outside the Wall was absolutely forbidden.

So Daniel whiled away the days and weeks, reveling in his work and chatting with his friends. They ate the plentiful food that they were given each day, slept in the comfortable beds they were provided with, marveled over the fascinating equipment and materials that were sent in to them for study.

And whenever he had the chance, Daniel would tap into the system to stare at that weathered, beautiful face, thinking that he was safe with his secret.

But of course he was not.

One day, Kinsey, their wise and powerful leader, called on Daniel, taking him into a private meeting room. "You've been watching O'Neill," was all he said at first. And Daniel's heart was in his mouth. His expression must have said it all, because Kinsey shook his head, as if greatly disappointed. "I don't know what to do with you, Daniel."

"I'm sorry," Daniel said. But he couldn't help adding, "It shouldn't be a crime just to look."

A frown creased Kinsey's forehead, and his mouth formed a deep scowl. "Perhaps not. But you've made me very unhappy, Daniel." He sat back and regarded Daniel with his sharp gaze, and Daniel felt miserable for having let down this man's trust.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said again, this time with the full force of genuine remorse.

Kinsey's severity thawed, and he patted Daniel's hand. "Apology accepted. In fact, I have an idea. What would you say if I let you visit O'Neill? Face to face."

"Really?" Daniel was caught between disbelief and elation.

"Really." But then Kinsey's kind features grew sad. "I'm afraid there's a price, though."

"What do you mean?"

"O'Neill is a very dangerous man. I can't let you meet him unprotected. You know how important you are to me."

Daniel nodded, for he knew very well how hard Kinsey worked to keep him and his fellow scientists safe. Sometimes, explosions rocked their home and they heard alien cries of pain and fury and roars of challenge sounding from behind the Wall. This, they were told, was the Outsiders' doing. All they wanted was to steal, or barred from that, to destroy and kill. All of the scientists loved Kinsey for facing their wrath in the scientists' stead.

"This man will attempt to poison your mind with lies and threats. He may even do his best to hurt you. Purely for your protection, I'm going to have to make it impossible for you to talk with him."

"Sir?" Daniel did not understand.

Kinsey produced a small device, a blue-white sphere the size of his fist. He pressed it, and it began to glow. He looked Daniel in the eye. "If I use this on you, you will not be able to speak or comprehend, read or write, not in any language. That is the price for meeting him. Do you understand?"

Daniel's greatest and most special talent was language. He could speak over two dozen, and he could learn new ones quickly. He dazzled his fellow scientists all the time with his prowess, helping them to solve difficult puzzles and drawing meaning from what was to them impenetrable gibberish. To lose this talent would be a horrible blow.

But Daniel wanted to see Jack. Even if he would no longer be able to speak with him, he felt sure that he could find some way to communicate. He returned Kinsey's gaze with a steady one of his own.

"I understand. And I accept."

"Very well. Remember that you will be alone with this man. I will try to visit you occasionally, to keep you safe, but you two will be alone together in perfect solitude."

Secretly, Daniel was happy, for that was what he wished. Aloud, however, he thanked Kinsey for his worry and assured him many times that he was sure in his choice.

And so the device was used on him, and Daniel saw nothing but white, and there was pain, and pain, and pain, and then nothing at all.

When Daniel awoke again, he thought he still slept, for the man who stared back at him he had seen before only in his dreams. "Jack?" he asked, afraid to believe.

The worn yet handsome face creased in a question, and Daniel remembered that he could no longer make himself understood verbally. He sat up, thinking rapidly of ways he might be able to use to communicate. The sudden change in position caused an unexpected surge of vertigo, and Daniel would have fallen back if Jack hadn't caught him.

Daniel flailed and tried to push away, embarrassed by his weakness, and flustered by the closeness of the man he had yearned to be near for weeks. Jack only gripped him tighter, maybe mistaking Daniel's movements for a reflexive defense. He steered Daniel to sit up against a wall, at the same time speaking slowly.

Though his words were unintelligible to Daniel, the tone was soothing -- and softly inquisitive. One hand stayed on Daniel, gripping his upper arm gently, and Jack's brown eyes stared deep into Daniel's own. By contrast, the cement wall at Daniel's back seemed to seep cold into him. For the first time, Daniel took in his surroundings.

The bare walls enclosed a barely eight by ten space, one cot with its blanket and pillow and a bare commode in the corner its only decoration. One side was enclosed by vertical bars. Ten feet outside was a door with a security lock prominently on one side. Daniel straightened in horror, understanding and disbelief warring for dominance in his mind.

Jack's words, only a babble of sound to Daniel now, grew insistent, and Daniel turned back to his prince with wide eyes.

"You're a criminal," he said. It was merely a statement. Daniel didn't have the right to make it an accusation, not when he should have known. All the images that he had viewed so avidly before... They had all been of this room. Yet he had never thought... Why hadn't he?

Strangely, it was Jack's eyes that registered surprise now. He gripped Daniel's arms harder and unleashed a series of words. They sounded like questions, maybe demands. Daniel shook his head.

"I can't understand you," he explained out loud, despite knowing it was useless. "I don't know what you're saying."

Jack's words slowed, with longer and more frequent pauses. When Daniel tried to explain again, Jack's face went dark. His fingers tightened until Daniel flinched in alarm. Jack let him go, only to storm to the bars of the cell and bang his fists against them like an enraged animal. He shouted unintelligibly, his words biting and full of incomprehensible violence.

Daniel stared, dumb in his nervousness. "I don't understand," he said again, helpless, confused at the vehement reaction. Had he been wrong about his prince all along? Jack was one of the dangerous Outsiders, after all. Unpredictable. Demonic.

As if hearing his thoughts, Jack turned to him, his fists still clenched. Would he attack Daniel next? Daniel shrank away. He couldn't fight. He knew that. Instead, he pulled together his courage. He spread his arms and opened his stance, trying to project friendship.

"I know you don't know me, and you can't understand what I'm saying, but I don't mean you any harm. My name is Doctor Daniel Jackson. I'm an archaeologist. I just wanted to meet you. I saw you in the video feed, even though I wasn't supposed to. I thought you were-- Well. You looked courageous and strong. You looked... lonely."

His words seemed to have an effect, though not the one that he had intended. Jack's face grew inexpressibly sad. He approached Daniel again, this time with caution, as if not to frighten. Daniel stood his ground, though he shook with trepidation. When Jack reached out, it was with warm, dry hands that rose gently to cup Daniel's face. Daniel drew a startled breath when Jack lowered his forehead to his.

Jack, his lips no more than a few inches from Daniel's own, breathed a short string of words and closed his eyes. Daniel covered Jack's hands with his own, none the wiser to Jack's thoughts but feeling as if he were now, finally, seeing the man he had longed to meet. "I'm Daniel," he whispered. "Nice to meet you, Jack."

And that was their first meeting, for Daniel and his Prince.

The days that followed were a wonder. Jack was kind, generous with his smiles and tender with his touch. Forgetting, or rather, no longer caring that Daniel could not understand him, he spoke to Daniel constantly. Daniel found that he could decipher jokes from Jack's quick glances and elaborate expressions, though he didn't understand their content. He could read wistfulness in Jack's gaze, and often frustration.

Jack was often angry, but he never threw another fit like the first, and to Daniel he was the epitome of care. Daniel was elated that his prince was, after all, the person he had always expected him to be.

As for Daniel himself, stripped of his languages, he made do with wide gestures and soulful expressions that made Jack smile all the more. He found himself speaking to Jack, communicating no words as Jack did not with him, but spilling everything he knew and felt, just the same. Jack listened with sadness in his features, but also fascination.

Daniel felt protection in Jack's attentions and freedom in his own unintelligibility. For the first time in his life, he did not seek to have his words translated properly. He told Jack all of his innermost thoughts and feelings. He told Jack his secret hopes and his past failures. He told Jack everything about himself, the bad as well as the good, because he somehow imagined that by doing so, he could come to know Jack the same way.

They had long 'half' conversations, two halves making a strange but satisfying whole.

At intervals, as promised, Kinsey would enter through the outer door. Jack was not happy to see Kinsey. He received him with the utmost contempt and resistance. And while Kinsey spoke gently to Daniel himself, to Jack he used a condescending, reverberating voice. Inevitably, their conversations boiled into loud expressions of pure hate that Daniel did not require comprehension of their words to interpret.

Of course, Kinsey, who fought to protect Daniel and his friends every day, was simply unable to see the good in Jack, who was one of the wild Outsiders. He was not like Daniel, who was experienced with different cultures and could make himself objective. Jack, for his part, had never known the good in Kinsey and so could not be expected to treat him well.

Daniel ached for them both.

Jack always took great pains to comfort Daniel afterwards, holding him close and stroking his hair. Daniel cried. Not because he was frightened by the verbal explosions -- though he was -- but because he missed his languages, and he wanted to help Jack very badly. He felt sure that if he could speak to Kinsey, he could somehow make his kind, good leader understand that Jack was not an evil man. Then, perhaps, Jack could be set free.

Other than Kinsey, and someone who came with their necessities, they saw no one else. But they never felt lonely.

There was no day or night and no timepieces in their cell. When they were tired, they slept close together on the single bed. The first time, Jack had Daniel sleep while he stayed up. But when he went to bed himself, Daniel saw no reason not to lay next to his tired prince. When Jack moved to the floor, Daniel followed. After several rounds of this, Jack gave in, though not without many a loud complaint that Daniel ignored in innocent incomprehension.

One 'morning', Daniel woke first. He gazed at the sleeping face of his prince, and the impulse became strong to bring his lips to Jack's. At the first touch, he felt something in himself alight. The feeling was so wondrous he gasped. Then Jack's lips moved against his, and he thought he would die with the pleasure of the sensation. A strange fire burned within, and he pushed himself closer to his prince, wanting nothing more than to become one soul with him.

But suddenly, he was wrenched away. When Daniel looked around in confusion, he found it was Jack himself who had done it. On Jack's face was a look of surprise. Then, for the first time since the first, Jack spoke harsh words to Daniel. Loud questions rained on him like an icy storm, and the poor archaeologist was broken-hearted.

"What did I do?" he asked plaintively. But of course Jack did not understand. "I'm sorry," he said, over and over, but it did no good. Jack rose from the bed and paced the floor. He shouted to thin air and cast dark looks toward the door. His face was grim and frightening.

Finally, though, he came back to Daniel's side. He took Daniel's face in his hands once more, and he spoke slowly and gently but with urgency also.

Daniel felt tears come to his eyes. "I don't _understand_!" he repeated. And Jack fell silent. He drew Daniel into his arms.

But after that, he pushed Daniel away, and he would not allow Daniel to touch him again.

Daniel was in misery. When next Kinsey came -- when next Kinsey and Jack argued -- Daniel appealed to Kinsey to take him away. Kinsey did not understand his speech, but Jack looked at Daniel's face and knew his heart. He spoke to Kinsey (not kindly), and, after many harsh words between the two men, Kinsey had the bars withdrawn and beckoned Daniel out.

Daniel paused at the door and looked back, but Jack did not return his gaze.

Once outside the cell room, Kinsey turned an angry face on his charge. Daniel hid his face, unable to make any reply, for he was at fault. After losing his language, he had thrown away the precious chance that Kinsey had given him. He had no words to express his apology, so he kept his head down and followed Kinsey when he led him away.

They went, not back to his home behind the Wall, but to a room empty of people, with a bed and table. Daniel looked around, confused. Kinsey pointed to a chair and Daniel sat obediently while his leader said a few words, clearly still unhappy. Finally, shaking his wisdom-whitened head as if in deep disappointment, he turned and left, closing the door behind him.

The door clicked as it was locked.

Alarmed, Daniel ran to the door and tried the knob. When that failed, he banged on the door and called out. No one answered his cries. Not then, nor an hour later, nor even a day after that.

For the first time since Daniel could remember, he was alone.

Time passed for Daniel in self-recrimination and despair. Except for the man who brought his meals, and the doctor who came to give him his weekly vitamin shot, he saw no one. The bed he slept on was larger now, and he didn't have to share his desk space with anyone. But he longed for his home in the scientists' dormitories.

Oh, if only he had never sought to leave there!

On the ninth day (though Daniel did not know the exact passage of time), the door opened and two familiar figures entered. "Nyan! Robert!" Daniel cried, rushing to greet his friends. They smiled at him, speaking rapidly in words that were of course indecipherable to Daniel. Just hearing their voices was heaven to him, however.

He ushered them to sit, all settling themselves on the bed as there was only one chair. "How are you? What are you working on now? Has anything new come in?" The questions spilled from his lips even though he knew they wouldn't understand him.

He stumbled to a stop, noticing how Nyan was looking sad and Robert was avoiding his eyes. "What's the matter?" he asked.

In answer, as if they knew what he was asking, Nyan held up what Daniel had taken to be an oddly shaped bag. He laid it on the bedspread in the middle of the triangle the three of them formed. Daniel stared at the black shape for a moment before he recognized it. "Nyan?"

Daniel picked up the holster and drew out a beretta. He couldn't remember using one before, but somehow the weapon felt familiar in his hands. He searched his friends' faces for an answer to the uneasiness rising in him. "What's going on?"

Robert glanced at Nyan before pulled a camcorder out of his coat pocket. He turned it on to play, then faced the small screen towards Daniel. Daniel gasped. "Samantha!"

The footage, clearly from a surveillance camera, showed Samantha fast in the embrace of a man. Daniel couldn't see the man's face, but the body, the carriage, the surroundings couldn't be mistaken. "Jack?"

Samantha in the video lifted her face. Jack stroked her short hair and said something that didn't come through in the video-only tape, though Daniel wouldn't have understood it regardless. Samantha touched Jack's face with wonder in her face. Then she surged upwards and touched her lips to Jack's just as Daniel had all those days ago. Daniel felt the ghost of a remembered feeling, and he raised his fingers to touch his own lips.

Jack in the video stilled in surprise. Daniel waited for him to shove Samantha away as he had with Daniel, but instead he slowly seemed to relax into the... kiss. It was a kiss. It was intimate and strange and Daniel felt a wrench in his heart that he couldn't explain. Finally, gently, Jack separated himself from Samantha's touch. He took her by the shoulders and spoke gently to her, and shook his head. Daniel shut the video off.

"What is this?" he asked.

Nyan took the beretta from Daniel's hand -- holding it all wrong, Daniel noticed -- and gestured toward the camcorder.

"What?"

Frowning, Nyan turned the tape back on, paused it, then pointed at the image of Jack.

"I don't-- What?"

Nyan gestured with the weapon, and Daniel felt cold.

"No! I could never-- You can't mean that. I'm not understanding you correctly."

Nyan and Robert stared at him, then conversed heatedly with each other for several moments. Finally, Robert stood and gestured to the tape, then tapped his own chest. "You're... Jack." Daniel followed his sign language reluctantly. Nyan repeated the gesture, pointing at Daniel. He stood, sighted along the weapon, and made a 'pow' noise. Robert made a show of falling down dead.

"I get that!" Daniel yelled, disturbed at the imagery. "But, why?"

As if anticipating his question, Robert jumped to his feet and ran to the other side of the room. He put his hands to his mouth and shouted towards Nyan as if from a distance, and then he waved his arms in an exaggerated beckoning gesture. Nyan, dropping the gun, ran to Robert. They hugged.

Understanding percolated through the fog of panic in Daniel's brain. "If I... If Jack dies, I can go back?" His friends looked at him encouragingly. "I can go back," he repeated with more assurance. He could go back to his beloved labs and projects. He could return to live with his fellow scientists, the siblings of his heart that he had longed for all these interminable days alone.

"But what about...?" He waved at his head, indicating his inability to communicate. His friends nodded. Nyan stood straight. He put on a stern expression and mimed pulling a suit jacket close over his chest. "Kinsey?" Nyan held out his fingers as if to bless Daniel.

Daniel laughed, from amusement at Nyan's charades as well as with relief. "Kinsey can fix it." Of course he could. Kinsey could do anything.

Another thought struck him. He picked up the camcorder and pointed. "Sam?"

Robert nodded and repeated the beckoning gesture. "She'll come home, too." Tears pricked Daniel's vision. Home. They could all be together again. Happy. Care-free. It would be just as before. Like none of this had ever happened.

Like Jack had never existed.

The brief elation Daniel had felt plummeted into oblivion. "I can't." Daniel looked at his friends. He pointed at the gun and shook his head. "I could never do that. You have to understand."

His friends looked to him beseechingly, understanding his meaning if not his words. Robert picked up the sidearm and pressed it into Daniel's hands, folding his fingers over the cold, heavy metal. He spoke. Nyan spoke. Both of them began to weep, and Daniel could not help but be moved.

He could see how badly his friends wanted him to return. He himself could not bear for them to leave him again. And Samantha? Would Jack continue to spurn her as well? Would she also eventually be locked in a room as Daniel had been, never to see her family again? Or would Jack come to accept her as he had not Daniel? Then Daniel would be shut away here forever, thinking of his prince and his sister-friend together.

It was a terrible decision.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the door. Two men wearing armor and carrying weapons came in.

Nyan and Robert sprang to their feet and shouted and waved their arms animatedly. They obviously knew what the men were here for.

"What's going on?" Daniel said, alarmed and frustrated at his own cluelessness.

The men came to Daniel and seized him, one on either side. Despite Daniel's friends' shouts, they pulled Daniel away and outside. "Let me go!" Daniel shouted, but the guards made no response. Even if they could have understood Daniel's speech, they would have reacted so, Daniel thought.

Having no better idea, Daniel gave in and followed their lead. They marched him to a door, which was opened with a security card and a code, and Daniel knew what was beyond even before he was shoved inside and the door locked behind him.

A voice called out. Samantha. She jumped up from the floor where she had been sitting against the wall of the leftmost cell -- Jack's cell. A familiar male voice called out directly after hers. Jack. From the opposite side of the cell, he rose as well. He looked as kindly as ever, and Daniel had to avert his eyes.

Samantha reached through the bars and called again. Daniel thought she might be saying his name. Her blue eyes, as pretty as ever, were clouded with uncertainty. Daniel went to her and took her hand. She looked as miserable as Daniel had once felt -- a hand's-breadth away from the person he adored, and yet withheld from him. It was only a matter of time before she would be shut away as he himself had been, both of them never to return to their homes again.

Unless...

Jack's voice called again, and Daniel turned to face him. He discovered that the beretta was still clenched in his grasp. With a familiarity that he did not want to analyze, he thumbed off the safety and lifted the weapon.

Jack would disappear. They would go home. Kinsey would forgive them and love them once more.

Samantha's voice came again, loud and full of dismay. She grabbed for Daniel's arms, but he stepped away from her interference. Jack's face filled his vision, drawn and serious.

"I'm sorry, Jack," Daniel said. He felt a pain at the base of his skull. He felt his arms quivering. He blinked his eyes clear, startled to feel tears spill down. Taking a breath, he started to speak again. He told Jack all that he felt, all that he regretted. He begged his prince for forgiveness and understanding. He cried out his heart.

And Jack lifted his hands and spoke soothingly to the archaeologist. Daniel couldn't understand the words, but almost, he could imagine that he knew what they were saying. It seemed to Daniel that he had been here before: he panicked and sighting down a weapon, and Jack speaking words of comfort to him.

Through the growing ache in the back of his head, Jack's voice floated in. Jack was pleading with him, insistently, implacably, compassionately. Not for his own life, but for Daniel's sanity.

"I don't understand...! Jack, tell me what to do. I don't know what to do! Everything's all wrong."

Sobbing now, Daniel lowered his weapon. He turned off the safety and stared at Jack helplessly. He could not murder his prince, but he could not bear to abandon his home either. He tossed the beretta to the floor and put the heels of his hands to his head in shrieking frustration. The headache was throbbing now, stronger than ever.

"...Daniel! Daniel!"

Daniel looked up, in sheer surprise at hearing his own name, after all this time of nothing but gibberish from all around him. "Jack?"

"Daniel! Oh my god, can you understand me?"

"I-- I-- Jack...?"

There was a searing white flash, and Daniel had no breath even to scream before he collapsed to the floor in agony. He could hear Sam shouting -- still in gibberish -- and Jack calling his name with urgency. There seemed to be screeching alarms going off all around him, the sounds stabbing deep into his brain. Daniel covered his head with his arms and he moaned as he was swallowed by blackness.

***

Jack came to visit him at his apartment on Wednesday. Daniel had considered not opening the door, but there were only two days of his vacation left. There was a point when prudence crossed the line to cowardice.

Daniel had felt it best to resign himself to it. A private setting to hash this out was better than the alternative, he told himself.

Now Jack was on his couch and coffee was on the boil. Daniel poured two mugs and bore them to the living room. Jack uttered a thanks and accepted the steaming mug in his large, rough hands.

Daniel flinched away, covering himself by sitting down abruptly across from his guest. Jack's hands had shown him many gestures of friendship and closeness before. The context was so different now, though, that Daniel couldn't stand it.

"How's Sam?" he asked. Jack shrugged like any day.

"A little shaken, but okay. She got a lighter dose of that head-jamming thing than you did. She's keeping busy, helping to put the base back together, that sort of thing."

Daniel nodded, knowing he should be glad but feeling vaguely resentful. He tried to make up for it by asking, "Teal'c?"

"He's fine."

"On his own say-so?"

"Give me some credit. Doc Fraiser looked over the files. It was nothing he couldn't handle."

"Hammond's sure we got all the files?"

"Davis stormed the gates personally."

"Good. That's... good. And the tapes?" Did Daniel imagine the slight clench in Jack's jaw?

"All surveillance tapes were recovered."

Daniel gripped his glass tighter. "So you and me. You and Sam."

He gave Daniel a sharp look. "They're not usable as evidence for personnel behavior. Everyone in that base was under the influence."

Daniel's eyebrows raised. "You weren't. Kinsey sure as hell wasn't."

"Well, the Senator says he was, and nobody's around to say otherwise."

"That's blatant perjury!"

Jack shrugged, as if to say, 'What did you expect?'

Daniel knuckled his forehead wearily. He'd been wondering how Kinsey would get out of this one. Shooting up dozens of non-consenting people with an untested drug was bad enough. Turning the SGC into his own little fiefdom of docile children was a nightmare straight from grim tales of good versus evil.

It was probably all for the best in the end, though Daniel had no desire to thank Kinsey's self-serving ways as the savior of Jack's career. "So the witch still lives," he muttered.

Jack looked puzzled for a moment. Then he looked rueful. "This isn't a fairy tale, Daniel. Nobody gets the happily ever after."

Daniel didn't bother to remind him that not all fairy tales had happy endings. "At least the bastard didn't even get his back-up plan. What a disappointment for him."

Jack grunted a mirthless laugh.

Both of them could imagine the report Kinsey would have so very eagerly filed, once his 'faculties' returned: _Clearly embroiled in a distasteful and scandalously felonious triangle of lust, SG-1's archaeologist clearly murdered his team leader in a fit of insanity. I move to disband SG-1, effective immediately, and begin a thorough investigation into the operations of the SGC... etc._

"So..." Daniel said.

"So, what?"

"You and me."

Jack frowned. For a moment, Daniel thought he might pretend he needed elaboration, but then he waved his hand dismissively. "You were under the influence. It's no big deal."

The words were said with just a little too much emphasis for Daniel to believe that they were the truth. What Jack saw as the truth.

"You mean, that's what the official reports are going to say, if anyone asks."

"Of course."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially, nothing." Jack looked Daniel hard in the eye.

Daniel stared back at him in disbelief. "Wait, I don't understand. What did you come all the way here for, if we're not going to talk about this?"

His features softening again, Jack raised his mug in a salute. "We just did." He took a sip. "What is this, hazelnut blend? I like it."

"You're just going to pretend that we didn't-- that nothing happened?"

Jack smacked his lips and set his mug down with a firm thunk. "Yup."

"But don't you... Shouldn't we...?" Daniel spluttered.

"Daniel..." Jack dropped his head back on the couch. "Let it go."

"Jack, that's insane. Something _happened_ between us there. You can't just..." Daniel shook his head, realizing the futility of his words. "You are. You're just going to forget." He slumped back in his seat. "How can you do that?"

"I guess I'm special that way."

"I can't do it."

Jack's expression blanked. He spoke, seemingly more to the acoustic ceiling than to Daniel. "I guess you're going to have to learn."

Feeling nasty, betrayed for no reason he could articulate, Daniel spat, "Did you have this talk with Sam?" That caught Jack's attention, his gaze snapping down with a frown.

"No."

"Yeah, I'll bet you can go easy on her for this sort of thing. Did you two have a great time kissing on camera for everyone to see?" The blushing fury on Jack's face only goaded Daniel on. "Not too shy to break a few fraternization regulations while 'under the influence', huh? Not if it's with a woman.

"Especially one who's been picturing you naked for months."

He honestly didn't know where that had come from. There was no cause, no cause at all for vitriolizing his friend. He'd always regarded Sam's discreet 'non-problem' with abstract sympathy. But there was no stopping the roiling, terrible feeling still winding through him.

For his part, Jack kept his calm. He didn't even raise his voice when he replied, "I didn't have this talk with Carter, because she doesn't need it."

"Because you're attracted to her, too?"

Now, Jack's voice hardened. "Because she's a Major in the United States Air Force and she knows how to conduct herself in front of her commanding officer."

"I'm not military. That bunch of crap doesn't apply to me." Jack never cut him any slack. It was always letting Sam have her way, her theories, her ideas. Or breaking the rules for Teal'c, letting him run roughshod at the SGC. With Daniel, it was just argue, patronize, and slapping down.

"Yeah, well how about this. She's not a goddamn nosy archaeologist who thinks that the world should bow to his own convenient ideals."

Daniel bristled. "If you're trying to insinuate that I--"

"I'm not trying to 'insinuate' anything." Jack made sharp air-quotes in Daniel's face. "I'm telling you flat out that you need to stop living in your private little dream. Take a step back for once and look at the world around you." He waved his arm in an all-encompassing arc. "Despite what you think doesn't apply to you, there are rules here, and damn real consequences."

"Of all the-- You really think I'm stuck in a book all the time? I've lived and worked in five countries and countless institutions. It's my _job_ to study the world around me. I can write a damn dissertation about the U.S. Air Force and its asinine rules."

Jack blew an explosive breath. "Then what part of Don't Ask Don't Tell don't you understand?"

Daniel snorted. "That's a ridiculous rule, and you know it. The Jack O'Neill I thought I knew would never use that as an argument."

"That is not the point!" Jack cut himself off, pounding his fists on his own legs. He continued in a calmer voice. "Daniel, if we talk about it, we get to thinking about it. And if we get to thinking about it, we get to being distracted. And in case you haven't noticed, we are not running a hot dog stand here. When we get distracted, snakes like Kinsey take over. And that's if we're _lucky_. If we're not, people get killed."

Daniel recoiled from the stark phrasing. But Jack was still wrong. Close-minded. Stubborn. "Fine. So why don't we get it all out of the way now?"

Jack sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. His voice was weary. "Let me put it on the line for you. If both of us are staying on the team, then we can't talk about it. Capische?"

Daniel wanted to argue. It didn't make any sense. It wasn't even important anymore whether they discussed it or not. He just wanted-- He needed Jack to acknowledge that it existed. That something had happened that Daniel could not just throw away into a mental compartment and forget.

But, Jack had said _if both of us_ , not _if you_.

Daniel put his face in his hands and spoke from his heart. "I don't know if I can, Jack. It's all so-- I just feel so... much."

There was a silence in the room broken only by the soft bubbling from his fish tank and his own harsh breaths. Then he heard Jack speak, sounding tired. "It's not you, Daniel. Honest to God. And it's not because you're not a woman. If things were different..."

Surprise made Daniel look up. Not surprise that Jack could be that accepting, but that the normally reticent man would voluntarily say such a thing, for naught but the comfort of another man. And for a moment, Daniel didn't see his best friend. He didn't see the Air Force Colonel. He didn't even see the man he saved the world alongside every other Thursday.

He saw what Sam probably saw when she got that guilty look in her eye -- a truly good man, one whom it would be a joy to come home to every day.

All the fight went out of him.

"I get it, Jack. It's not going to be a problem."

Jack looked relieved. "I'm sorry if I ever made you think..." He rubbed one hand over his hair. "I had no idea you felt that way."

Daniel wondered if all the stray pats, the ruffles of his hair, the fiddling with his clothes, were coming to an end. He felt suddenly wistful for things he'd never known he'd treasured. "Yeah, well." It was a poor answer to all of Jack's bald-faced honesty. But better than, _I didn't know either_.

From Jack's suddenly piercing look, Daniel wondered if Jack had guessed, anyway. He said nothing, though, except, "I guess I should go."

"Yeah." Daniel levered himself to his feet to accompany Jack to the door.

One step outside, Jack turned around and looked as though he were going to say something.

"What?" Daniel asked him, not even truly curious. He was bone-tired.

"Nothing." Jack frowned. "See you tomorrow, Doctor Jackson."

Daniel felt something fold inside. "See you tomorrow, Colonel."

Jack's expression seemed to tighten somehow. Daniel waited for him to say something else, but silence lingered on. He started to close the door.

Suddenly, Jack stopped it with one hand, brown calloused fingers flat on the new-painted wood. With the other hand, he reached out, a familiar smirk on his face, and he ruffled Daniel's hair, and he laughed when Daniel said his name: "Jack!"

And then he was gone.

  
END.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Fact one, Hans Christian Andersen is from Denmark. Fact two, I did not know this before I conceptualized this story, so the fact that the author of "The Little Mermaid" shares ancestry with Daniel Jackson is a happy accident. For the curious, here's the original story by Hans Christian Anderson: [The Little Mermaid](http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html), published in 1836. For the ultra-curious, here's the story in the original Danish: [Den Lille Havfrue](http://www2.kb.dk/elib/lit//dan/andersen/eventyr.dsl/hcaev008.htm). (All hail and bless [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid).)
> 
> A/N: The version of "The Little Mermaid" that I formerly knew ended with the Little Mermaid turning into sea foam. With this in mind, I wanted an ending line wherein a character 'disappeared', and I purposely made that character not Daniel, but Jack. Although Jack is set up as the prince in this story, I thought that ultimately, Jack must make the same trade as Daniel (and Sam): his voice and his freedom, in exchange for staying together with his team. Of course, given how the originally published story ends (where the Little Mermaid character rises into the company of a host of ethereal, transparent, beautiful beings), Daniel Jackson's ascension can be viewed in a particularly interesting light.
> 
> A/N: So, when did you start to suspect that this was not a fairy tale? :)
> 
> A/N: Many thanks to [](http://akindofpastry.livejournal.com/profile)[**akindofpastry**](http://akindofpastry.livejournal.com/) , [](http://dhae-knight.livejournal.com/profile)[**dhae_knight**](http://dhae-knight.livejournal.com/) , and  [](http://zats-clear.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://zats-clear.livejournal.com/)**zats_clear** , for helping me with the Danish. :)


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